The Daisy Nukes
by electric gurrl
Summary: Morning breaks. So do bottles and bones. Azula lights a cigarette and Ty Lee twists herself into an impossible shape. — Azula x Ty Lee. Post-Apocalypse AU. O/S.


**A/N:** This is my very, very late entry for Tyzula Week. I've been so busy with premed summer quarter that it took me forever to write this oneshot. Thank you for clicking and I hope you enjoy the show.

* * *

 **THE DAISY NUKES**

* * *

 _My heart is nuclear  
Love is all that I fear  
Ready to be let down  
Now I'm heading for a meltdown  
_" _Radioactive" — Marina a_ _nd the Diamonds_

* * *

 **GLOW**

Morning breaks. So do bottles and bones. Azula lights a cigarette and Ty Lee twists herself into an impossible shape. The sun rises over a broken, scorched world, destroyed by nuclear bombs and violent, desperate teeth tearing at each other's throats.

The shadows of the dead are burned into the rubble that surrounds the small campsite of a group of wasteland marauders who titled themselves the Daisy Nukes.

Azula glances over at Ty Lee, perched on the rocks in the best place to bask in sunlight. "Is there a point to the post-apocalyptic yoga?"

Ty Lee takes a deep, soothing breath. The air smells like ash and tastes like rotting corpses.

"It opens my hips to help with all the running we do." Ty Lee flashes a confident smile.

Azula takes another drag from the cigarette. "Fair enough."

"And it definitely makes me glow!" Ty Lee sweetly chirps, shifting into another impossible position in which she needs to squint in the blinding sunlight.

"The sun almost makes you yearn fror Nuclear Winter," says Mai as she walks into the dilapidated room.

Ty Lee pouts, almost mockingly.

"You could use a little glow in your aura. It's a gross, pasty grey," teases Ty Lee and Katara laughs, wrapping her arm around Mai, her girlfriend of what feels like eons.

Gloom and Bloom got together after a particularly violent battle in which Mai risked _herself_ to save Katara. That was never expected from someone almost as selfish as Azula and the agonizingly _cute_ relationship lasts to this day.

"She has a point," whispers Katara in Mai's ear. "You could appreciate life a little more."

Azula snuffs out the crumbling remainder of cigarette and coughs twice. She gazes out the broken, dirty window tp shield her eyes from the sickeningly gooey couple.

"Appreciate what?" dryly asks Mai. "Starvation, decay and anti-radiation meds? Not to mention the _smell_."

Or, she thinks to herself as she sees Ty Lee gazing at Azula, watching those two secretly lust for each other. They always look at each other a little too long to be just friends.

"Are we ready to head out?" asks Azula, rising and picking up her pistol. She slings her assault rifle over her back. Azula always did love firearms, and the taser always strapped to her thigh.

"Yes!" Ty Lee eagerly leaps to her feet, obeying her leader with pure happiness. She glows like a puddle of radioactive goo just by looking at Azula.

Mai briefly contemplates throwing herself out of the window to avoid watching more of this endless dance.

Katara turns to her girlfriend and knowingly smiles.

 **CRY BABY**

Morning breaks. So do bottles and bones. Azula lights a cigarette and Ty Lee twists herself into an impossible shape. Mai and Katara bicker about hope and hatred, like they often do. It is a mundane morning and none of them mind. A little peace and normalcy is hard to come by in the wasteland. Mundane mornings are the best kind.

They conceal this campsite in the destroyed parking garage in hopes of returning tonight and leave to go stake out the new town they have yet to explore.

Mai carries blades and is an expert at throwing them, Katara can wield whip as fluidly as if it were water, Azula prefers the firepower of guns and the close range of a concealed taser, and Ty Lee relies entirely on her own fists, a set of spiked brass knuckles on her right hand.

They walk for a while, sauntering down the main road without any fear. The four women have fought the worst the Wasteland can offer. Azula, Mai, Katara and Ty Lee are the bandits who rob other bandits, the bloodthirsty ladies who slay cannibals.

Girls like them only dream of war. Girls like them keep their feelings on tight leashes, even Katara who cries after a kill from time to time. Girls like them long ago surrendered to something hateful and ancient. Girls like them belong to this ashen, ravaged Earth. Girls like them belong to all the charred bones beneath their feet. Girls like them are those of violent and godless deaths.

Salvation does not exist.

They cling to each other because separation is dangerous.

But attachment is just as risky.

Without the remnants of war, they would have nothing.

Girls like them only dream of war.

They make it a few feet inside of the department store before they hear the growl of, "You lovely ladies mind getting off of my goddamn property before I blow you to Hell one by one."

Azula's lips twitch with a smirk, her back to the assailant.

They slowly, very slowly, turn around. Katara puts her hands up and the other girls ready their weapons.

"Sir," says Katara, playing her usual role in their entertaining charade (as she is the most believable sweetheart of the group), "we didn't mean anything. We thought this place was abandoned. Forgive our intrusion and please let us go."

"You just walked into the big bad wolf's den, little lady. And the big bad wolf decides what happens to sweet little girls like you."

Five more men emerge from the shadows. Azula sees a glint on the floor above, around the shadows that surround the top of the busted escalator.

"How about you don't give the orders and y'all put down your fucking weapons."

The girls slowly begin to obey. Mai keeps a few blades hidden, Ty Lee drops her dagger with the full knowledge she does not need a weapon, Katara tosses the whip at her hip down. Azula softly sets down her pistol and begins to do the same with her assault rifle before she sees the red dot on Mai's forehead.

Someone grabs Ty Lee's braid from behind and she screams. She moves to punch him and—as soon as Azula sees that miniscule expression of comfort on the man's face, she snaps upwards and fires two shots, one hitting him in the leg, the other taking out the sniper about to kill Azula's closest thing to a friend.

The fight breaks out in half of a second. Ty Lee lunges forward and her fist collides with the first man's arm, leaving it useless, and then she moves to the other, then to his gut, leaving him paralyzed and panicked on the floor.

"Don't kill him!" barks Azula, and Ty Lee steps back. One man grabs her by the arm and spins her around. She snaps his neck. Azula smiles and mutters to herself, "That's my girl."

Katara slashes open the face of one man and Mai delivers the killing blow to his neck with one throwing knife. Azula guns down two, their blood splashing everywhere. She remembers the first time she killed someone; she never imagined there would be so much blood. Now she has become entirely used to it.

Mai kills another, Ty Lee another, Katara another, and Azula stops, walking over to the last man, rendered helpless by Ty Lee.

"You have made a very grave mistake," purrs Azula, reaching down to her thigh and withdrawing the lovely little taser she managed to swipe a few months back. "Do you know that?"

"I—I wouldn't've hurt y'all."

"Oh, please. I know your type. You underestimated us. And your unfortunately deceased colleague manhandled my best friend." Azula shakes her head. "Oh, come on, I'm about to execute you. Why are you wasting your few precious moments left _crying_ about it? Is the big bad wolf a little crybaby puppy?"

He continues to sob. Gross, grotesque, snotty and loud.

Azula glances at the taser and then puts it away. She grabs her pistol and puts one round into his head.

The crying stops. She turns to her friends.

Azula announces regally, raising her arms like Christ on the cross, "The Daisy Nukes do it again. Now let's go shopping."

Katara grumbles something about Azula not being the leader, but it isn't worth arguing about today. They had a victory.

Girls like them dream of war; girls like them are only satisfied by victory and vengeance.

 **ELECTRIC**

Sitting at dinner, "I read this feminist paper in an old book about how violence as a way for women to rise against oppressors is actually detrimental," says Katara between bites of cold canned beans. "It talked about how caring for oneself and loving others was the only path to change."

"We are not looking to change anything. We are looking to be strong and become stronger with every fight."

Ty Lee pipes up, "I think we all kinda enjoy the looks on their faces when women kill them."

Azula smiles. Not smirks. Genuinely smiles at the thought.

"Why wouldn't we?" she purrs. "It's electric."

"It's sick. I thought joining up with the Daisy Nukes as your damned paramedic would help me change things. I learned medicine to try to help change things. But I've realized the difference between us. I kill because I have to; you kill because you like to."

"Some people are just born to fight, I think," says Azula. "Not because they're brave or strong. It's just that God decided that they will be made from fire and steel instead of bone and flesh. They face a thousand fights no matter what they do. Maybe I could have stayed in Sanctuary with my father and ZuZu. But I was born for this. I was born to lead us. I am not a monster; I am survivor. Don't you dare ever forget that again."

"Oh shut it. I don't have the energy for this." Katara walks over to Mai and checks the scratches on her arm.

Azula gazes up at the stars. Someone creeps up beside her and sits down. Ty Lee rests her head gently on Azula's shoulder.

"Azula…" murmurs Ty Lee. She chokes slightly and tentatively places her hand atop Azula's. For once, the girl does not pull away. Even more slowly and hesitantly, Ty Lee leans in and kisses her best friend on the chapped lips.

Azula takes a breath and kisses Ty Lee back, deeply and passionately. Electricity surges between the two of them as they swap saliva. The kiss breaks for a breath of air and Azula recoils.

Doesn't talk to Ty Lee for the rest of the night.

Doesn't mention how electric it was.

[X]

Morning breaks. So do bottles and bones. Azula lights and cigarette and Ty Lee stares up at the sky. She was up all night worrying about what she did. She thinks she could have destroyed her friendship with Azula, and it is the best thing in her life.

Ty Lee gently shakes Mai and Katara and finds them fast asleep. She sits up and walks to Azula's side.

"That kiss…" Ty Lee does not know what else she maent to say.

"Allow me to finish my morning cigarette before you say something entirely out of line," states Azula coldly. She knows Katara and even Mai might protest her speaking like a commander instead of just the girl who glues the team together. But Ty Lee always has followed her like a soldier in a war.

"Uh… okay." Ty Lee gracefully sits down. She picks at her fingernails before she grows impatient all too quickly. "That kiss…"

"What about it?" Azula snuffs out the cigarette and averts her eyes.

"It was electric. I feel like I was a broken light and you… made me shine again." Ty Lee smiles and gazes at the girl she has had a crush on for forever. Azula escorted her through the Wasteland, a brilliant and violent creature as vibrant as lightning.

"I must agree," Azula says, her voice restrained and reserved. Ty Lee breathes in the scent of smoke on her clothes and lips and her enamored eyes lock with Azula's. Again, the leader of the Daisy Nukes looks away.

"Do you want to be together?"

"What?" Azula scoffs and Ty Lee cringes. "Like Mai and Katara? Gloom and Bloom? I would sooner let one of you incompetent bitches lead our gang."

Ty Lee feels like someone stabbed her in the chest and twisted the knife. Her heart stops. She does not know if she is breathing or not, but she must be because she is conscious enough to feel this pain like angry lightning surging through her veins.

Azula slides the pack of cigarettes back into her bag and zips it up.

"But—but you—you kissed me back," Ty Lee whispers, her cheery demeanor as far gone as formal infrastructure and fresh water.

"I like you. But I don't do love."

Ty Lee closes her eyes and walks away to start her yoga routine.

 **RIVER**

"Care for a swim?" asks Ty Lee, walking along the riverside like a dangerous balance beam.

"The water isn't safe. You know that, right?" Katara says, lips twitching.

"But it doesn't look like, murky though," says Ty Lee, squinting at the river and faltering for a moment. Azula's heart flutters, but Ty Lee catches her balance.

"Looks can be deceiving," says Azula, as coldly as she has addressed Ty Lee since the kiss.

"We'll filter it to drink it," says Katara, rising.

"I don't think we can filter enough to swim though." Ty Lee pouts.

"You don't even know how to swim," dryly protests Mai.

Ty Lee glowers at her playfully.

"I wanna learn," says Ty Lee.

"Why would you want to do something so impractical?"

Ty Lee gives a dramatic glance and a deep summer-sweet sigh.

"The heart wants what it wants." She gazes at Azula.

Azula clears her throat and stands.

"I should check the perimeter," she states, fleeing the scene.

Ty Lee stares down at the river and contemplates drowning herself.

 **FORGET**

"Do you think anyone remembers what this place used to look like?"

"It's been over a century. Anyone who does is long dead." Azula stares at the shadows burnt into the wall. "Or marked like paint on rubble."

Ty Lee gently touches one of the outlines of someone killed by the nuclear bombs.

"Oral history—" begins Katara.

Azula interrupts, "Does not count as real memories."

Ty Lee chimes in uninvited, "I've seen some stuff in fashion magazines I grabbed."

Azula insists, rolling her eyes and huffing, "Again, secondhand. It is all long-forgotten. All real, hard knowledge of the world before the Wasteland is forgotten and we ought to stop bickering about it."

Katara says with a bitter frown, "You know what I hate most about this world? I still remember what it means to do the right thing, but now, the right thing is a luxury."

Azula snaps, "But it's not just a luxury for _us_."

Katara shakes her head. Ty Lee and Mai exchange an exasperated glance. "That doesn't make us right. That just makes a lot of people wrong."

Azula rubs her lips together. She stares at Ty Lee, who stands talking to Mai as they examine the burned shadows on the rubble.

Katara says, "You love her."

"No, I don't. I don't love people. I wasn't born to love."

"Everybody is. Come on. If you love her, tell her. You don't have the time to worry about it or be afraid—"

"I am _not_ afraid!" shouts Azula and both Mai and Ty Lee spin around. She lunges at Katara and lands a punch right on the side of her face. Katara snaps back up and punches Azula hard in the gut, forcing her to double over.

Azula gasps for breath but readies her bruised knuckles for the rest of the fight. Yet Katara steps back.

"I don't wanna fight you. Just don't forget what I said."

"Shut up," Azula snarls, standing slowly. "Ty Lee, come on. We're going to split up and find a good shelter for the night."

"As you wish, my queen," mocks Katara.

Azula clenches her fists, wanting to punch her again, but Ty Lee softly squeezes her arm and guides her deeper into the ruins.

"I want you to know that I love you a lot, and I love you enough to let you… not love me."

"Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't love me. Don't do that to yourself."

"Azula, I can't help it. I just can't. I've tried to keep it to myself for so long but—"

Seizing Ty Lee by both arms, Azula pulls her into a rough and passionate kiss. They sink deeper and deeper into it, their souls melding into each other before they at last pull away.

"I need you at your peak condition if the Daisy Nukes are to succeed. No distractions are permitted. So stop loving me," Azula orders.

But it is Azula who has the distraction. It is Azula who cannot stop loving Ty Lee.

It is all so very messy.

[X]

"You have pretty eyes," says Ty Lee beside the campfire. Azula had been gazing deeply into the flames, enjoying how they burned at her skin even from afar. "They're like pure gold, or amber, or yellow but definitely like gold. So pretty!"

Azula says nothing.

To tell the truth, she thinks Ty Lee's eyes are prettier. They are warm, unlike Azula's. They are protuberant and lovely and they gaze at the world with such hope and passion and all those stupid things Katara goes on about when she's drunk.

"I said to shut up about this." Azula continues staring into the fire.

Ty Lee continues staring at Azula.

 **SAVAGES**

A few days later, Azula wakes from her sleep in the woods, as do the rest of the Daisy Nukes. Ty Lee had migrated to sleep intertwined with Azula, and they both pretended it was because of the cold, because of friendship, because of anything but their irresistible attraction to each other.

She identifies what woke her in a split second; screaming, horrified screaming. She hears loud laughter and the crackle of an oversized fire. When she jumps up, she sees the light and shadows from afar, but cannot make out exactly what is going on.

"Grab your weapons, ladies."

"We're already halfway through doing that," mutters Katara, running her fingertips across her whip.

Azula ignores her and slings the assault rifle over her shoulder. She picks up the pistol and prepares herself to use it.

They move as quietly as they can through the woods (which is nearly impossible; moving quietly in the woods is about as easy as breathing on the moon). Yet, that bonfire of savages is so loud that it covers up their movements.

They walk into the clearing and the laughter stops. The screaming does as well.

"Hello, savages!" chirps Ty Lee, waving once with her brass-knuckled hand.

"We hate to be party crashers, but you all are just having so much fun with these injured and abused girls," Azula says icily, stepping forward. "Who wants to die first?"

They laugh again. Azula's stomach clenches as she wants to just fling herself at these cretins. The war paint on their faces is stupid, the weak attempts at leather armor pieces sad and pathetic. But their weapons are quite nice, quite effective.

A shot rings out and hits Katara in the arm. She shrieks. Azula spins around and sees more of the savages emerging from the woods, whooping and hollering. Another bullet hits Katara and Mai grabs her, running into cover.

Azula turns to Ty Lee. Ty Lee swallows as they both run forward and try to fight. Katara walks Mai through medical procedures with pained, strained words. Azula and Ty Lee try to hold off a force quite superior to them, even with their talent at battle.

The moment Azula wastes her time shoving an adolescent boy who grabbed Ty Lee into the fire, watching him scream and burn, she feels hands on her, pulling her backwards, knocking the gun from her, throwing the assault rifle into the flames. It makes a godawful sound.

Ty Lee hits the ground.

Two of them tie ropes to Azula's wrists, just like the hostages the Daisy Nukes were attempting to save. Azula glances back and forth at people attempting to be her captors.

"You will not win. I never lose," growls Azula, eyes flashing.

One man wearing a crown of repurposed steel steps forward, his eyes glowing and glaring like a monstrous caveman. Azula spits on one of the people holding her. The savages might as well be used to such a dirty act. He tugs on the ropes and swears but does nothing else.

Ty Lee begins to creep upwards. Her movements are miniscule and Azula exchanges a glance with her crush. Katara and Mai are tossed into the pile of five hostages.

Azula knows what must be done. She will distract them; Ty Lee will use her skilled moves to break them free.

In theory, it should work.

But Azula truly feared that she was about to be burned alive.

She already could smell the charred flesh of the boy she burned.

"That was my brother," snarls the King Savage.

"Pity." Azula winks at him and he clenches his fat fists. "I never liked my own brother. We fought and fought."

Ty Lee slipped one hand out of the ropes.

"What's your name."

"Azula. And these ladies are the Daisy Nukes. I am their leader, just like you are the leader of these savages. You saw us fight. Perhaps we could teach you a thing or two."

"Ha ha." King Savage looks so damned smug.

"Oh, don't be cute. I know your type. I bet I can guess your story. You were born poor, in a farming settlement. Worked and worked. At least you got fed. Your settlement was destroyed. You thought it was an opportunity. Maybe you even thought about going to Sanctuary, but instead, you wanted to go from an impoverished little farm boy in the desert to a King."

He sweats. Azula could not be prouder of herself.

"Tell me. Am I far off?"

"Do I know you, bitch?"

"No. I am just a people person. See, the reason you will lose is not because we have the upper hand. We don't," says Azula as Ty Lee struggles to remove her wrist from the other bond. "See, you aren't a King. You aren't even a good leader. You have to string these boys along with promise of pillaging. You have to bribe them because true power, the divine right to rule, is something you are born with."

"Oh, well then, Madame Divine Right to Rule, I have a gift for you." He picks up a rock and before Azula, Ty Lee, Katara or Mai can do a thing, it collides with Azula.

Another hits her. Another. Ty Lee gives up on being subtle and starts kicking and screaming, frothing at the mouth as a rock hits Azula in the face and she starts to fall down, back arched. A rock smashes into her ribs and Ty Lee hears the crack from a few feet away.

Ty Lee leaps up and paralyzes the two men holding Azula strung up. She takes Azula in her arms and gently lies her down before grabbing the taser strapped to her hip and taking down the four men who were holding her in place.

She runs to that farm boy who declared himself king, then dives out of his way as he tries to grab her. She burns open the ropes on Mai and Katara and hands Mai a sharp rock. It is enough of a blade for the girl to do real damage.

Mai slashes and hacks, Katara takes deep breaths and shields the sobbing hostage girls. Ty Lee breaks necks. Snaps them with great pleasure because Azula is bleeding profusely, unconscious. How _dare_ they.

She grabs the King Savage and shoves him to the ground, setting her foot on top of his diaphragm.

"You hurt her, you bastard. You hurt her and now you're going to pay." Ty Lee grabs a rock and begins to smash it down on his head before Mai grabs her.

"We're not savages, Ty Lee." Mai takes the bloody rock and slashes open his carotid.

Ty Lee gazes at Mai with tears in her eyes.

"I'll free the girls; you take care of Azula."

Ty Lee runs to the side of her true love, a dangerous lady who just was _stoned_ half to death by _savages, savages, savages_.

Azula's eyes flutter open.

"That's my girl," she says, for the first time loud enough for Ty Lee to hear.

Ty Lee bursts into tears and, for once, Azula does not chastise her for it.

Perhaps those tears are earned this time.

 **IMMORTAL**

The Daisy Nukes do nothing for the hostages but let them go free. They head back to their own campsite, wounded. Katara declares that they will raid a pharmacy tomorrow, but for now she can take care of them with what's in her medical kit.

"I knew it was smart to kidnap a paramedic." Azula laughs and some blood trickles from her lips. Katara pulls out her sewing kit, sanitizes her tools and starts the stitches.

"What's wrong with her?" Ty Lee pleads.

"Bad cuts that will heal with stitches, broken ribs, some bruises, made a hairline fracture on the arm. She will certainly live but we will want to treat the pain and keep her bones in place so they don't get deformed," says Katara. "I guess you're hard to kill."

"You too," says Azula softly, glancing at the two gunshot wounds Katara cleaned out, stitched up and wrapped with gauze. "Not that it's a compliment. I took worse. They _stoned_ me. Those two are through and throughs."

Katara just rolls her eyes and finishes her work.

[X]

Morning breaks. So do bottles and bones. Azula struggles to light a cigarette with her bruised fingers and Ty Lee walks to her side with no regard for yoga practice. Ty Lee sits in front of Azula and helps her light the cigarette.

"I could've done it myself," lies Azula, smoke billowing from her lips as she speaks.

"I know. And you could've escaped those guys by yourself too. I'm just here to help." Ty Lee smiles and cracks her knuckles.

Silence.

"You look weird today," remarks Azula as ash crumbles from her fading cigarette.

"I was so scared I would lose you."

"How scared?"

"You're Azula. You're supposed to be immortal. You're not allowed to die." Tears swell in Ty Lee's eyes again.

"Don't cry," Azula orders and Ty Lee bites back the tears successfully.

She forces a smile.

"Can we pretend you're immortal?" whispers Ty Lee.

"Yeah. I liked playing pretend with you when we were kids in Sanctuary." Azula's lips twitch. She desperately wants to kiss Ty Lee's but she knows she must hold back.

"Me too. I think about us as kids sometimes. I had the _biggest_ crush on you."

"I know it. I was oblivious then, but not anymore." Azula smirks.

"And I… nothing in this screwed up world is immortal. Nothing's built to last in this awful fucking place." Ty Lee takes a breath. Azula cocks her head to the side; Ty Lee almost never swears. "But I would like to spend whatever time I have left with you."

"You were my last thought," reluctantly admits Azula. "When that rock hit my face and I was out, you were my last thought."

Azula wants to scream. She should not have said that. Why did she say that?

Ty Lee smiles at Azula, gazing deeply into her tired, puffy eyes.

"I love you forever," says Ty Lee.

"Forever," agrees Azula.

Ty Lee kisses her softly on the sore lips.

They close their eyes and pretend this moment will last forever and always.

 **e** nd


End file.
